Supermarket sales drop again

Supermarkets have seen the worst set of sales in two years, with analysts pointing squarely at a spate of lousy weather, rather than life outside of the European Union.

Although, the markets may still wobble over that in due course.

Kantar Worldpanel say that the grocery market has dropped by 1.1% in the four weeks to 17 July, and according to City analysts, that's the worst month of trading for at least four years, if you don't include Easter trading.

Mike Watkins, UK head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen, says: "The weather is having a big impact on the industry at the moment, adding further pressure on sales from deflation and responding to the growth of discounters."

Now, Nielsen collect their data in a slightly differing way to Kantar, and they reckon that the value of sales has fallen 2.4% in the four weeks to 16 July, when you compare it to the same period last year.

Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, says: "The nation's average shopping basket is 1.4% cheaper than a year ago, exactly the same level of deflation as reported last month, and it remains to be seen if the Brexit vote will bring about any price rises this year."

Another thing that influenced the UK's shopping, was Euro 2016, and you won't be surprised to learn that England's exit saw beer sales falling wildly.

Prices often go up in Autumn, when crops drop off, and we import more food from overseas.

With the pound falling in value, that'll make imports even more expensive, but consumers will expect retailers to be able to work with this, and still offer good prices.

The four largest supermarkets in the UK – Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons – saw sales continuing on a downward spiral, with Asda performing the worst, with sales down 5.6%. The best performer, Tesco, saw their sales down 0.7%.